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Brendan Hay (Harvey Street Kids, Dawn of the Croods) joins Jordan and Jesse for a discussion of the european soccer player villain in Cliffhanger who kicks people off the mountain, Brendan's desire to expand the roster of his new Netflix show based on Harvey Street characters to Casper, Richie Rich, and ultimately Baby Huey, and Jesse's deconstruction of the song Word Up by Cameo and how it cannot be about anything but a disfigured penis. Plus, Jordan asks an important question: is the culture more horny for Santa than usual this year? Show notes

Maximum Fun's annual pledge drive - MaxFunDrive - was an enormous success this year, thanks to our kind, generous, and supportive community. In addition to welcoming over 25,000 new and upgrading monthly members, we also brought back our enamel pin sale. Like last year, we put our limited edition MaxFunDrive pins on sale to all $10+ monthly Maximum Fun members. As 2018 comes to an end, we're so excited to donate the profits from the enamel pin sale to a great organization that could really use some support from our wonderful community.

This year, we decided to donate all of the pin sale profits to the hardworking folks at the National Immigration Law Center (NILC). NILC works to protect - and advance - the rights and opportunities of low-income immigrants and their families:

"At NILC, we believe that all people who live in the U.S. should have the opportunity to achieve their full potential. Over the years, we’ve been at the forefront of many of the country’s greatest challenges when it comes to immigration issues, and we play a major leadership role in addressing the real-life impact of policies that affect the ability of low-income immigrants to prosper and thrive."

On December 14, 2018 at Maximum Fun headquarters in Westlake, Los Angeles, the founder of Maximum Fun, Jesse Thorn presented Marisa Aguayo, Senior Officer of Institutional Giving at the National Immigration Law Center with a check for $101,922.97.

Marisa Aguayo explains what this donation means for NILC:It's through the support of your listeners and other supporters and donors that we know there's a groundswell of support for a better vision for our country that is more inclusionary of all kinds of people. That's really heartening. And that gives us great hope for the future - and kind of fuels our fight for the future, as well.

And Anthony Martinez adds:This year we were met with so many challenges - and, particularly, the communities we represent were met with so many challenges- so to see something so great like this [donation], it really brought up our spirits. We're looking forward to the new year. We know there are going to be a lot of challenges that lie ahead for immigrant communities, but we're just really thankful for all of the support that your network has shown us.

Maximum Fun believes in trying to make the world a tiny bit better in whatever way we can, and this year in particular, it's very clear that immigrants could use all of the support we can give. We know MaxFunsters champion inclusivity, value community, and understand the importance of advocating for people who may need extra support, so NILC is the perfect recipient of this year's donation.

Thank you again for being the most fantastic community we could ever ask for. All of us here at Maximum Fun are so grateful for your continuing generosity towards our network, our shows, and the community at large. As Jesse said, "We're really proud that our community came together to make this happen so that [NILC] could advocate on behalf of folks that need an advocate." We couldn't have done any of this without you, and with your contributions, we hope we can help the NILC make the US a safer place for immigrants.

If you would like to support the National Immigration Law Center as part of the Maximum Fun community, head over to this page to contribute.

Lady to Lady has decided to leave Maximum Fun and take their show independent. We've loved having Brandie, Tess, and Barbara as part of the family for the past five years, and we're sad to see them go. If you're one of the many MaxFunsters who loves Lady to Lady, there's no need to update your feed - future episodes will continue to show up in your podcatcher of choice.

If you are a monthly member and you had chosen to support Lady to Lady with your membership, your donations will no longer go towards Lady to Lady. If you want to support other Maximum Fun shows, you can alter your Maximum Fun donation to redirect your contribution. If Lady to Lady was the only show you listened to and you would like to cancel your membership, you can do so by following the instructions at that link. If you run into any issues, please email donations@maximumfun.org and we can help you out.

Hi friends! We are so excited to announce that we have a scholarship available for MaxFunCon 2018! Thank you so much to all of the generous attendees who contributed to the scholarship fund and made this possible!

The scholarship will be awarded to one individual who has a strong desire to attend MaxFunCon but is financially unable to do so. It will cover the cost of your MaxFunCon ticket, accommodations, food, drink, and activities -- but it will not cover airfare or travel to and from the event.

In order to apply for this scholarship, you must meet all of the following criteria:

You have significant financial need. Specifically, it would be difficult or impossible for you to attend MaxFunCon if you did not receive a scholarship.

You will be able to participate in the entire weekend-long conference. MaxFunCon begins at 4 PM on Friday, June 8 and ends at 1 PM on Sunday, June 10.

You are able to arrange your own transportation to and from Lake Arrowhead, CA to attend MaxFunCon.

If you are interested in applying for a scholarship, please send a short essay telling us a bit about yourself and explaining why you want to go to MaxFunCon. In particular, please describe your creative aspirations and how attending MaxFunCon might help you with your future projects. Essay instructions are as follows:

The 2018 MaxFunDrive (and Weekend Amnesty) has officially come to an end, and at the time of writing we are at 28,630 new and upgrading members!!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! That means we not only surpassed our goal of 25,000, but hit our stretch goal of 28,000! This is absolutely amazing, and we are incredibly grateful and lucky to have kind, cool, generous members like you -- people who believe enough in what we do at MaxFun to voluntarily contribute money to keep it going. If you were able to join or upgrade this year, thank you so much! And if you are a sustaining supporter, thank you for your incredible support all this time! We couldn't do it without you!

Now that the drive is over have a couple of quick things for you:

Watch a replay of Friday's live show!
We had a true MaxFun extravaganza to celebrate the end of the drive on Friday night. We packed Angel City Brewery with hosts and MaxFun members for a two-hour ELEVEN-SHOW spectacle. It was a blast, and we know a lot of you weren't able to tune in live, so we decided to keep the video up on our YouTube channel just for you! Watch it here.

Our #MaxFunDreamDate Stretch Goal
Since we hit our stretch goal of 28,000 (thank you!), we are going to make this perfect work of graphic design a reality. More information is forthcoming -- we'll let you know when to start sitting by your Dream Phone waiting for our call.

Thank-you Gifts
If you became a monthly member at the $10 level or above for the first time during the 2018 MaxFunDrive, or if you were able to upgrade to the next membership level, we'll be sending you a gift to say thanks for taking the plunge. (Folks at the $5 level and up should already be able to dive into 100+ hours of bonus content!) We send the physical gifts to production after the drive is over, so we know how many to make, and in this case, we will be waiting until after the pin sale, as well. So, gifts probably won't go out until July, but we'll keep everyone posted on the production process. Please keep in mind that cancelling your membership or changing your membership level may affect your gift eligibility.

Pin Sale for Charity
Since we hit our goal of 25,000 new and upgrading members, we will be putting the pins on sale for all active members at the $10 level or above -- with proceeds going to charity. We are working on setting up the shop for you, but it will take a little bit of time. If you are eligible to buy a pin, we'll be sending you an email in the coming week(s), and once we're ready to go, we will be shouting it from the rooftops* so you won't miss it.*everywhere MaxFun exists on the internet

Holy moly, what an incredible week! At the time of posting, we are currently at 17,270 new and upgrading monthly members of Maximum Fun! That. Is. Amazing. If you head over to to maximumfun.org/donate you'll notice we've added our live counter in the corner, so you can keep up with the progress towards our goal of 25,000 new and upgrading members. (Remember, if we hit our goal, we'll be putting the pins on sale for all $10 members with the proceeds going to charity, like last year.) Here's what's going on for week two:

#MaxFunMeetupDay is TOMORROW, April 10!

Tomorrow at 7pm (in whatever time zone you happen to be in), find your local MaxFun meetup! MaxFunsters all across the land will be gathering together to hang out in person. Go to maximumfun.org/meetups2018 to see if there's a meetup in your town, and if you don't see your town on the list, it's not too late to start one of your own! Just pick a place that can hold a group, and email the details to stacey@maximumfun.org. We'll get it up on the site and on our handy meetup map so all your cool new podcast friends know where to find you!

MaxFun Star-Studded Finale Live Show!

On the night of Friday the 13th at 7:00pm PDT, we're going to fill Angel City Brewery in downtown LA with MaxFun hosts and members to bring you a live extravaganza celebrating the end of the 2018 MaxFunDrive! Over a dozen MaxFunStars will have fun counting us down to the end of the drive and hustling for as many more new and upgrading members as we can get, before announcing the final count at the end of the night! Mark your calendars for this show, and check back at maximumfun.org on Friday to stream it LIVE!(Sorry, Angelenos, we're at capacity for live show attendees. If you'd like to get on the waiting list, you can email lindsay@maximumfun.org.)

Watch the Full MaxFunCan(yon) Video Now!

MaxFunCan(yon): Yanni: Live at the Acropolis 2: Live at the Grand Canyon Without Yanni is now on MaxFunHQ's YouTube! Last year, we promised if we hit our stretch goal that we would do a show in the Grand Canyon and boy, did we ever. Watch the full video and enjoy!

Thank you so much for your incredible support last week, now let's finish up the MaxFunDrive with a tremendous week two!

The best two weeks in podcasting start NOW. If you aren't familiar with the MaxFunDrive, it means spectacular episodes from your favorite shows, limited edition gifts, MaxFun meet-ups across the globe, and a 2-week celebration of all things Maximum Fun - including you and our fantastic community!

THE 2018 MAXFUNDRIVE STARTS TODAY, MONDAY, APRIL 2, and ends on Friday, April 13. It is THE best time of year to become a monthly member (or upgrade your existing membership), and we've put together some incredible, MaxFunDrive-exclusive thank-you gifts!

You knocked our socks off last year by blowing past our original goal of 10,000 new and upgrading members. We promised to go do a show at the Grand Canyon if we reached our stretch goal - and we finally made that show a (weird, wonderful) reality a few weeks ago! We even filmed it for you. You can see a preview of the video here and a full video will be out soon!

As for our goal this year: we hemmed and hawed and talked ourselves out of it and talked ourselves into it and we finally decided to set our 2018 goal at 25,000 new and upgrading members. TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND new and upgrading members. I legit just started sweating. That's more than double our goal last year. We believe we can do it, but we'll need your help.

Here's how you can help:

Tune in to all your favorite shows (and hey, try some new ones, too!) during the next two weeks. Even if you're behind on episodes, you should really listen to the new ones during the weeks of the drive. Your favorite hosts will tell your all the exciting stuff about MaxFunDrive, and you'll get to hear the choicest episodes of the year and chat about them with all your MaxFunster pals!

Go to (the new!) maximumfun.org/donate and become a new monthly member or upgrade your current monthly membership! If you're in a position to do this now, you should do this now. Like, right now. Come back here when you're all done and read the rest of the fun stuff at a leisurely pace--oh, you’re back! Thanks so much for your support!

Spread the word! After you've started your membership, share your love for MaxFun on social media with the #MaxFunDrive hashtag, and tell you friends who listen to our shows why you became a member or upgraded your membership and why they should consider doing the same.

$5 a month: Special bonus episodes and videos (over 110 hours of content!) from all of your favorite shows!

$10 a month:We got the impression you really liked the enamel pins last year, so we commissioned Megan Lynn Kott to create NEW ENAMEL PIN DESIGNS for your favorite shows! And they are magnificent. Pick your favorite, and proudly wear your love for your favorite MaxFun show.

$20 a month:This one is super special, my friends. We asked the MaxFun hosts to share their favorite recipes with us, which we compiled with care into The MaxFun Family Cookbook! Have your pals over and cook up a feast beloved by your favorite hosts. And for dessert, make some tasty cookies with the set of three space-themed cookie cutters that come along with cookbook!

AND MORE! (Including the official re-introduction of the $50 level!!) Check out maximumfun.org/donate to see all of the gifts at all the levels!

Yes, we said more pins!

We are IN LOVE with Megan Lynn Kott's pin designs this year, and we're sure you will be, too. Like last year, we're planning to put pins on sale with the proceeds going to charity IF we hit our goal of 25,000 new and upgrading members (gulp). So, if that happens by the end of the drive, all folks at the $10 monthly membership level or higher will have the opportunity to buy pins for a period of time. Please keep in mind that the money made from the sale of these pins will be donated to charity, and that the single best way to support your favorite MaxFun shows is to join as a sustaining monthly member or upgrade your membership to the next tier. So be sure to encourage all your friends who listen to MaxFun shows to pledge a $5 monthly membership if they're able to!

Since you've already clicked through, you've seen that some sections of our site look very different than last year. We've made some improvements to the design and flow of our membership pages, with more changes rolling out soon. We want to thank Pixel and Dot and Alex Liebowitz (and Bikram and Lindsay) for their incredibly hard work on putting together a better experience for all of you kind and generous folks.

Thank you for reading, and GET EXCITED FOR THE ALL THE PODCASTING FUN! You'll hear more from us in a bit!

The best two weeks of the year are almost here! The MaxFunDrive is the perfect time to support your favorite shows by starting a monthly membership or upgrading your existing one. It's also THE MOST podcasting fun you can have. Shows will release their biggest episodes yet. You'll hear from plenty of fantastic guests on extra intriguing topics. Our thank-you gifts for new and upgrading members this year are potentially our most exciting gifts yet (we've been SO PUMPED about them for months). And we'll have MaxFun meetups around the world.

But most of all, the MaxFunDrive is a huge celebration of all things Maximum Fun, including the spectacular community that's formed around these wonderful shows. Make sure you tune into all of your favorite shows during April 2 to April 13 for more details about the MaxFunDrive and for the best episodes of the year! And if you want to follow everything happening on social media, follow MaxFunHQ on Twitter and Instagram and share using the #MaxFunDrive hashtag.

MaxFun Meetup Day is Tuesday, April 10, 2018!

One MaxFunDrive tradition we really, really love is MaxFun Meetup Day. These listener-hosted gatherings happen all around the world on the same night, and it's a splendid way to meet MaxFunsters in person. This year's meetup day is Tuesday, April 10 at 7:00pm.

If you'd like to host a meetup, simply pick a place (we recommend a bar or cafe that can accommodate a group), and email stacey@maximumfun.org with your city, state, venue, and name, and we'll get it listed on our meetup page. Once the meetup locations start rolling in, you can see the list at maximumfun.org/meetups2018. If your area isn't represented yet, don't fret, just make one! It doesn't have to be anything fancy - just a place where people can get together and say hello. The people will bring the fun.

As always, thank you for your incredible support of Maximum Fun, and we'll see you in a few weeks for THE 2018 MAXFUNDRIVE! Airhorn noise, airhorn noise, airhorn noise / high fives all around!

At the end of the MaxFunDrive in March 2017, we announced that if we hit our MFD super stretch goal of 20,000 new and upgrading members, Jesse and a few MaxFun hosts would do a live show from the Grand Canyon, in front of 5 very lucky, randomly selected winners. WELL, it is finally HAPPENING! At the end of March, we'll be bringing Sage, Joey, Ben, Sara, and Kevin to the rim of the Grand Canyon for an extremely special MaxFun live show.

We reviewed our plan with our friends at the Grand Canyon, and while there was way less "You want to do WHAT?"s than we expected (they're cool!), they were also very clear that we needed to limit the number of attendees in our group in order to protect the beautiful landscape. Of course we wish our entire community could join us in one of America's Treasures, but in order to respect the folks at the Grand Canyon and ensure we keep our impact on the park as low as possible, we have to keep it to our lucky winners and their plus-ones only.

But don't fret - we're going to record all the fun so all of our incredible members can enjoy it. We'll even have a video to go along with it, so you can see the splendor and silliness. Thank you so, so much for such an incredible MaxFunDrive. We love you all!

The 2017 MaxFunDrive was a huge success for Maximum Fun, thanks to an incredibly generous community of supporters like you. One of our thank-you gifts was particularly popular this year (hi pin collectors!), so we did something unprecedented in order to thank you all and to try to help some people along the way.

We chose to sell these pins to you, our monthly members, so that you could build out your collection - but we decided up front that we would donate all of the proceeds from this sale to our friends and neighbors at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.

One in seven people in Los Angeles County experiences food insecurity. That's an eye-opening ratio and it needs to change. With just one dollar, our friends at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank can provide four meals. A little bit goes a long way at this wonderful organization, and thanks to the support of people like you in Maximum Fun's community, we were able to give more than a little bit this year.

On December 20, 2017 at Maximum Fun headquarters in Westlake, the founder of Maximum Fun, Jesse Thorn, presented Roger Castle, Chief Development Officer of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, with a check for $100,365.66.

That's 401,462 meals for our neighbors in Los Angeles County.

Roger Castle explained what this donation signifies for the LA Regional Food Bank:

We feed 300,000 people a month in LA, and we need to feed more than that. So, this is going to make a huge impact on what we can do this year. We can distribute more meals than we ever have before.

The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank helps prevent our neighbors from going hungry, and makes it possible for people all over Los Angeles County to gather with their family and friends and bond over a meal. As MaxFunsters, we know that you understand the importance of community, and by purchasing pins you've directly helped strengthen communities in Los Angeles.

Here's what Jesse Thorn himself had to say about this:

It's just awe-inspiring to be where we are... this is our tens of thousands of listeners stepping up. It's kind of an amazing thing to me. We've always been focused on using our network to make the world a better place and impact our audience's lives. And I think we've found in this, and in many other areas of our business, that our audience is not only on board for that, but they want to join in with us and each other to make people's lives better. And that's a really beautiful thing.

Thank you again for being the most wonderful community we could ever ask for. Everyone here at Maximum Fun is so grateful for your generosity towards our network, our shows, and the greater Los Angeles community. We couldn't have done any of this without you.

If you would like to support the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank as part of the Maximum Fun community, head over to lafoodbank.org/maximumfun to contribute.

We put together a holiday gift guide with some popular merch - plus books, albums, art, and more fun stuff created by your favorite podcast hosts! Check out the list below (in alphabetical order by show title) for some great ideas for the beloved MaxFunsters in your life.

Adam Ruins EverythingTickets to see their favorite ruiner of things live in person!

Bubble
Fans of Fairhaven's favorite monster huntrs can get an array of merch repping their favorite show and company. There are posters, stickers, buttons AND a shirt!

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
There's are beautiful Bullseye posters and t-shirts in the MaxFunStore, and if you want to really impress the Bullseye listener in your life, get them the perfect find from Jesse's vintage shop Put This On.

Can I Pet Your Dog
If it doesn't seem right to buy your loved one a pup, the next best thing you can do is buy them a shirt with a pup on it. The MaxFunStore has perfect shirts for both the Tugboats and Pistachios in your life.

Dead Pilots Society
Host Ben Blacker has a great new comic out now called Hex Wives that you should get your pals hooked on.

The Flop House
The Flop House has a series of comics on the themes of "Horror" and "Love" with the proceeds going to charity - an ideal gift AND a donation to a good cause!

Also, Elliott Kalan wrote a very adorable children's book, called Horse Meets Dog that would be perfect for the kids in your life. Get those Floppers started young!

Friendly Fire
We've got both a very cool poster and t-shirt available in the MaxFunStore for all the Friendly Fire fans in your life, depending on whether they like to wear their hosts on their sleeve or their walls.

Jonah Raydio
Make your friends an old-fashioned mix tape (or playlist) with some of your favorite songs you discovered through the show. (You should buy the songs, though. Let's support those artists).

Jordan, Jesse, Go!
Let your favorite JJGo fan know you support their hobbies with this newly added D.T.W. robot shirt. Be sure to get something from Jesse's vintage shop Put This On, too!

Minority Korner
Tell your pal who loves Minority Korner exactly how great you think they are with a jumbotron message read by Nnekay and James on the show. Go to maximumfun.org/jumbotron for more details. And remind them to side-eye their heroes with this new t-shirt.

My Brother, My Brother, and Me
Give the cool babies in your life some MBMBaM cred with a bunch of merch from their store. And thank Travis for Travis this holiday season.

Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone
Tell the world that the title of the show is a fib with this NLTPP t-shirt from the MaxFunStore.

Oh No, Ross and Carrie!
Gift this conversation piece of a mug, so they always have a point of reference for something creepy that happens. Like seeing your friend walking in your front door wearing this cool It Suffers the Illusion shirt even though you know all of your doors and windows were locked.

Reading Glasses
For all your family members who sneak away to read this holiday season, there's this very direct Do Not Disturb the Reading Tote bag. You should probably also get them this library-inspired Ask Me What I'm Reading shirt so they have something for when they can't stop talking about the book they're reading.

Sawbones
Everyone you know deserves to have Justin and Sydnee's Sawbones book, beautifully illustrated by Still Buffering's Teylor Smirl.

It's also worth noting that "all participating authors have generously forgone any compensation for their stories. Instead, their proceeds will be donated to First Book—a leading nonprofit that provides new books, learning materials, and other essentials to educators and organizations serving children in need."

Or if you you love a big time MaxFunster very much and want to get a few gifts out of the way in one go:
A ticket to MaxFunCon 2019, a weekend-long gathering full of comedy, creativity and friendship in Lake Arrowhead, CA from June 7-9.
If that's not in the budget this year, you can also some MaxFun logo socks, a dad hat, shirt, hoodie, or a skateboard deck for the MaxFunster in your life.